Itsuka Kendo (Dawtz)
|romaji = Kendō Itsuka|alias = Battle Fist Wild Tiger (Formerly)|birthday = September 9th|age = 15 (First Appearance) 16 (Current)|gender = Female|height = 166 cm (5'5¼")|weight = 181 kg (400 lbs)|hair = Orange|eye = Teal|bloodtype = O|quirk = Big Fist|status = Alive|family = Sekijiro Kan (Foster Father)|birthplace = Chiba Prefecture|occupation = Student|affiliation = U.A. High School Underground Arena (Formerly)|team(s) = Team Kendo (Leader)|fightingstyle = Rokushin Kaikan Karate Grappling|base of operations = U.A. High School|entrance exam = 5th Place|quirk apprehension = 1st Place|class grades = 1st Place (Tied with Manga Fukidashi)|debut = Chapter 26 Episode 15|voice = Saki Ogasawara (Japanese) Jad Saxton (English)}} |Kendō Itsuka}}, also known as , is the class representative of Class 1-B at U.A. High School, and is training there to become a Hero. She was formerly an undefeated fighter in Japan's underground arena, under the name of the "Wild Tiger," but eventually retired at the behest of her foster father Vlad King and enrolled in U.A High School. Appearance Itsuka Kendo is a muscular young woman with teal eyes and long, ginger hair, that is always worn tied into a high ponytail on the left side of her head. Her bangs are split into three clumps around her eyes. Some of her hair sticks up in large tufts on the top of her head. For her hero costume, Itsuka wears a turquoise knee-length qipao, over which she has a black double-breasted corset, ending just below her breasts. She also sports black short pants under the qipao. For accessories, she wears a loose brown utility belt around her hips, a satchel attached at the back, a thin black domino mask around her eyes and white-heeled navy blue boots with wide vamps that reach down to her toes; filled in with white slips. In her winter hero costume, she switches out her normal qipao for one with long sleeves, reaching down to her elbows. Personality Itsuka is a spirited girl who is thoughtful of others. She does not hesitate to criticize even her classmates if she feels what they are doing is not right, such as whenever she karate chops Neito Monoma on the back of his neck to prevent him from antagonizing Class 1-A and the rest of Class 1-B. She is also willing to pass on opportunities that would benefit her if she feels other people deserve it better. This is shown when she let Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu and Ibara Shiozaki participate in the tournament event of the U.A. Sports Festival in place of her team. Tetsutetsu has stated that because of Itsuka's cheerful personality, she can bring all of Class 1-B together, thus making her the "big sister" of Class 1-B. Itsuka seems to also be friendly to people outside her class and seems to hold no signs of ill-will towards Class 1-A, making her a minority of the 1-B students. She has displayed sympathy towards others, even if she is not particularly close to them. She showed concern for Izuku Midoriya and Tenya Iida after hearing about their run-in with Stain and helped Class 1-A by telling them what was supposed to be on the First Term Final Exam's practical portion despite it being somewhat against the rules. However, behind this kind demeanor is the heart of a true fighter. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu describes Itsuka as more of a "warrior" than any other student. Itsuka herself claims that she has yet to overcome her Wild Tiger personality, and enjoys fights much more than she should. Perhaps because of this warrior's attitude, Itsuka possesses an absurd amount of willpower and a complete unwillingness to surrender in battle. After being brutally beaten by Rikido Sato, Kendo refused to give up and instead devised a tactic to defeat Sato. Against Izuku Midoriya, even after having her jaw broken by the New York Smash, she stood up and was perfectly willing to continue fighting. Despite this willpower, however, Itsuka is still a teenager, and honestly admits to being nervous when entering a fight. History Itsuka Kendo was different from the moment she was born, having a birth weight of 12,150g, due to her body's abnormally high muscle density. Her life did not get easier from there, as at the age of four, both of her parents were killed in a car crash. In addition, she was unable to live a normal life because of her condition and Quirk, and lived inside Furumi Pharmaceuticals' secret laboratory until the age of 7, when her future foster father Sekijiro Kan helped her learn to regulate her strength by encouraging her to punch him as hard as she could. As a child, she sent five Judo club members to the hospital after they picked a fight with her, without taking a single scratch herself. At the age of thirteen, Kendo entered Japan's underground arena, a cutthroat martial arts competition with the prohibition of Quirks being its sole rule. Even without her Quirk, Kendo quickly rose to the top due to her incredible body and Karate skills, defeating several world-famous fighters in the process. However, two years ago she was defeated by the Fang of Metsudo, Kanoh Agito, the reigning champion of the arena. Her loss to Kanoh resulted in an injured ankle which has never completely healed, and remains quite literally her Achilles' heel to this day. Ever since then, Kendo has been waiting for a chance to get her revenge against Kanoh. Despite being forced to put her fighting career on hold due to her injury, Kendo never stopped training, and began to develop two new "aces in the hole" to use against Kanoh the next time they fought. However, Vlad King Abilities Overall Abilities: '''Itsuka Kendo is a tremendously powerful fighter and the strongest student in Class 1B. Having fought in Japan’s underground arena for two years, Kendo is very experienced and possesses finely tuned battle instincts on par with professional fighters. Her astounding brute strength (perhaps surpassed only by Rikido Sato), skill, and willpower allowed her to advance to the semifinals of the Final Tournament, defeating Yosetsu Awase, Rikido Sato, and Manga Fukidashi before losing to Izuku Midoriya. Kendo has an abnormally high muscle density, 72 times higher than average, and weighs almost 200 kg for her size, allowing her to deal extremely powerful blows and withstand a tremendous amount of punishment. As a child, combined with her Quirk, it allowed her to fight opponents much larger than herself. Kendo is revered as one of the strongest fighters in Japan’s underground arena, having defeated countless opponents with big names, including: * A karate master who killed a man-eating bear with a single punch and was said to have fists that could kill a god. * A legendary mixed martial artist who they said advanced the modern history of martial arts by 100 years and whose name would always come up in discussions on who the strongest man in the world was. * An Eastern European monster who was one of the rare cases of the "Superman Syndrome" and who they said was so strong not all of humanity combined could hope to match him. * A master of jiu-jitsu who single-handedly drove the South American underground martial arts community. He had a 500-0 win record and his opponents say they lost before they knew it. * A prodigy who they said had the talent to overcome the Fang of Metsudo. His background was unknown and he practised a mysterious martial art. These wins were also all accomplished without the use of her Quirk, Big Fist, and at the young age of 13. In the present, Kendo has been noted to be even more powerful. While she originally fought with pure brute strength, after being defeated by Kanoh Agito, she began working more on the technical aspect as well. In addition to improving on the Rokushin Kaikan karate she had been practicing, Kendo added two "aces in the hole" in order to take revenge on Agito. These two "aces in the hole" are: her '''Blast Core and grappling. Having secretly trained for three years, Kendo gained techniques on par with career grapplers. Despite this, Manga Fukidashi noted that based on technique alone, Kendo's grappling skill is still a level below top-class at best, but in combination with her insane strength she is just barely top-class. Since Kendo is superhumanly strong, karate is usually enough to win a fight, but when she is in a situation that prevents her from using it at its maximum, she incorporates Blast Core and/or grappling to be able to fight more easily. Despite valuing her physical strength the most, she is not a typical brute force user, being a very tactical person who can create and implement strategies and counterattack right in the middle of a match. Quirk Big Fist : Itsuka's Quirk grants her the ability to enlarge both of her hands to a gigantic size. With the size, comes enhanced striking power and gripping capabilities. *'Enhanced Strength:' Although Itsuka's strength is already abnormal, her Quirk amplifies it to superhuman levels. Punches from her enlarged fists are powerful enough to shatter the ground and easily knock out unprepared opponents. *'Enhanced Grappling: '''While her fists are enlarged by her quirk, Itsuka's grapples become nearly impossible to evade, and her grip is powerful enough to restrain even Izuku Midoriya, who was using One For All at 30% of its power. Super Moves * Double Jumbo Fist (双大拳, ''Sōtaiken): With both her hands at normal size, Kendo strikes her enemy with them, activating her Quirk just before impact to maximize damage. * Blast Core (爆芯, Bakushin): Kendo's strongest technique which she invented as her "ace in the hole" for Kanoh Agito. This is a powerful punch which involves compressing all of her muscles to a single point in the center of her body and then unleashing it; an analogy would be compressing a spring to its uppermost limits and then releasing it all at once. The form of this technique bears a striking resemblance to the no-motion reverse punch of traditional karate. While powerful, this technique places a lot of strain on Kendo's damaged right ankle, which keeps her from throwing it many times in succession.17 In addition, its range is shorter than a normal right straight punch. * Crescent Moon Kick (クレセントムーンキック, Kuresentomūnkikku): A variation of the Crescent Kick used in martial arts such as Karate and Taekwondo, this is an outside kick using the edge of the foot to hit the opponent's midsection. Combined with Itsuka's incredible strength, this attack can even rupture the opponent's liver, which it almost did against Izuku Midoriya. Stats Trivia * In the First Popularity Poll, Itsuka ranked 13th, which currently makes her the most popular character in Class 1-B. * Itsuka's Quirk is very similar to the power possessed by Marvel Comics hero Kamala Khan, but instead of having full malleable control of her body, Itsuka is only limited to increasing the size of her fists much like Kamala likes to do. ** However, since Kamala's first appearance in Marvel Comics (mid-2014) is extremely close to Itsuka's first appearance in the manga (January 2015), it's possible her powers were instead adapted from that of Reed Richards, a.k.a Mr. Fantastic, a founding member of the Fantastic Four. Both Richards and Kamala have the exact same powers. * Itsuka's given name contains the kanji for "one" (一?) and "excellent" (佳?), while her surname contains the kanji for "fist" (拳?) and "wisteria" (藤?). ** Her surname is a possible reference to her Quirk and the martial art of the same name. * Despite being a student of Rokushin Kaikan karate, Itsuka was formally expelled for taking part in underground matches. However, she still maintains a mentorship relation with her sensei Ao Kenji. * Itsuka likes black coffee and motorcycles. She's also referred to as "masculine". * According to Horikoshi, Itsuka is very popular among his staff. * Itsuka came in 5th place for the Entrance Exam with a score of 25 Villain Points and 40 Rescue Points. Quotes * (To Mustard) "Carrying a gun around is just another way of saying you've got no confidence in a fight. Because at least us '''simple' minds at U.A... have grown beyond the point of ever thinking that there's no hope!"'' * (To Momo Yaoyorozu) "Ever since we appeared in those commercials during our workplace experience, we've kinda been treated like a pair, you know? They always box us together like an idol group or something. But you have better grades and a better Quirk than me, so whenever people would lump us together like that, I really couldn't stand it. I wouldn't show it though. So on a personal level, I always wanted to try duking it out with you!" * (To Izuku Midoriya) "Midoriya. You've done well enough. I commend you from the bottom of my heart. I promise, everyone here recognizes how strong you are. So... isn't this enough? Be proud that you made it this far! Be proud to be defeated by me!"